This message was recorded outside the Labour Party conference at Liverpool Docks on Sunday the 8th of October 2023. It was an event organised by Kellie Jay Keen Minshull, a woman’s rights campaigner and founder of the Party of Women. It was the latest in a series called #LetWomenSpeak, open mic events in which ordinary women are invited to talk about the impact that gender identity ideology is having on their lives.
I’m sharing it today as Keir Starmer is launching his Local Election campaign. Later this year pundits expect him to win a landslide victory at the General Election. Whilst Labour attempts to position itself as the party for women he still seems confused and embarrassed when asked what one actually is. He is promising GC campaign groups and trans right activists that Labour will meet their diametrically opposing demands; that he can reform the gender recognition act whilst protecting women’s sex based rights. One may wonder how Stammer can be trusted to protect women’s rights when he cannot even seem to ensure their safety at his own party conference.
In September 2021 Andrew Marr asked Starmer if someone who thinks only women have a cervix was welcome in the Labour Party. His response was that the party was the place to have a tolerant debate, insisting that the Labour Party conference would be a safe space for discussion. However when pressed and asked if it was a transphobic statement he said “it was wrong to say that only women have a cervix” and that “ it was something which should not be said.’
Unfortunately his assurances of a tolerant debate was not enough to assuage the concerns of Rosie Duffield, a Labour MP and then chair of the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party. She has suffered years of abuse at the hands of fellow labour members, targeted for her support of women’s sex based rights. She pulled out of the Brighton conference that year citing safety concerns, disappointed that the Labour Leader had failed to condemn her abusers in the party.
The next two years saw groups like Lesbian Labour, Labour Women’s Declaration and Women’s Place UK work tirelessly to petition the party and put forth the feminist critique of gender identity ideology. They were resisted by groups like Young Labour and LGBT Labour , who, rather than debate their opponents, sought to shut them down and frame their arguments as hate speech.
Despite his insistence he would welcome debate at conference in 2022 The Labour Women’s Declaration, the women’s charity FiliA and the lesbian and gay charity LGB Alliance had their requests for a stand turned down. Whilst Labour insisted this wasn’t a politically motivated decision, it did make one wonder where Keir intended this discussion to take place? Or was it that by a tolerant and respectful debate he meant one carefully curated to include the state funded lobby groups who happened to believe that actually yes, some men do indeed have a cervix.
By 2023 the debate had moved on. Rapists like Isla Bryson and his bulge had shifted the Overton window, blowing the Scottish Gender Recognition Bill out of the water and toppling political colossus Nicola Sturgeon. Labour had back tracked insisting they understood the issue and could be trusted to maintain women’s safe spaces.
In 2023 the Labour Women’s Declaration were able to hold two fringe events at the conference; titled, ironically enough “Disagreeing well: finding ways forward on sex and gender” and “How can Labour champion freedom for women and girls?” Meanwhile Lesbian Labour hosted the Get Braver event with the Gay Men’s Network. There was hope that a major policy shift was underway.
Some of Starmers party delegates quite clearly hadn’t got the message.
As you can see from the footage women had been surrounded, enabled in no small part by Stonewall Champions, the Merseyside Police. They had moved the women from their original location to one which could be surrounded on all sides, before throwing up metal barriers effectively kettling them in place, allowing counter demonstrators to surround them.
While the counter demonstration was not officially endorsed by the Labour party, some of those who attended were labour party members, if not conference delegates.
In attendance were the usual rag tag of black blocked masked agitators, who seem to have paused their fight with Nazis to address the much more threatening spectre of women’s sex based rights. Fighting fascism by gathering to scream “shut you’re stupid fucking mouth you stupid fucking terfs, shut you’re stupid fucking mouth you stupid fucking terfs, shut you’re stupid fucking mouth you stupid fucking terfs.”
The SWP and their banners made an appearance, as did a hotch potch of quickly scrawled platitudes like ‘feminism is for all genders’ and the now classic ‘I eat terfs.’ The Twittler youth were out in full force, driven to a frenzy by propaganda which insists they are front line warriors in the ultimate battle of Good and Evil.
Also attendance were adults one would hope knew better. Men like this, proudly displaying their Fire Brigade Union regalia, assured they will receive no penalty from their comrades or managers at work.
Their presence and the lefts refusal to address the violence of trans rights activists in left-wing organisations has emboldened men who wish to scream abuse at women in public, given them a free pass. A free pass for what is effectively their two minutes of woman hate.
Men like these lovely chaps from the band Frog Dylan, who it later emerged had a member who made transphobic tweets and jokes about raping women. One wonders what is motivating them to fight so hard for those who would otherwise be a source of humour and derision.
Those with a keen eye may note the date, the 8th of October the day after the Hamas pogrom. I must admit I had forgotten this myself, and was only reminded when scrolling back through footage to write this article. It didn’t stop the anti-fascists from attempting to shout down a Jewish woman stood and spoke of her own sexual trauma and how the Hamas attack had triggered her PTSD. There was no sympathy for her when they later started chanting, as she moved on to speak about transgenderism, ‘boring, boring, boring, boring,’ oblivious it would seem of everything but their own strange piety.
What will Labour do to address this seam of misogyny that is seemingly weaving itself through the labour movement like a stick of Blackpool Rock? Not a single Labour MP or member of Keir’s leadership team spoke out to condemn the behaviour of activists that day, despite their actions occurring just feet away from the conference centre.
Will Starmer find the courage to speak truth to male power and those who seek to punish dissent and silence women’s concerns? Or will he follow in Humza’s footsteps to introduce hate speech laws which would make misgendering a criminal offense with a potential custodial sentence?
It seems that women will not be heard by the leadership just as they have not been heard by the labour movement more broadly.
With all left wing or centrist political parities insistent that transwomen are women; and a conservative party speaking out of both side of it’s mouth on trans rights, who can women trust?
Can women’s groups from across the political spectrum unite to hold vote hungry MP’s to account? Will Kellie Jay Keens Party of Women provide that platform to force the debate on the national stage, during upcoming Council elections? Will groups like the Women’s Rights Network, working with grassroots members from each political party, manage to shift the Overton window yet again in 2024?
One thing is certain women, like trans rights activists, show no sign of sitting down and shutting their ‘stupid fucking mouths.’ How long can the media and the political class who share their bubble ignore the elephant in the room and the violent acts of those who insist on no debate?
If you want to get involved but don’t trust the major parties you can become a member of the Party of Women or join the Women’s Rights Network. To stay abreast of the latest developments subscribe to my blog.